Craig Erickson – Modern Blues (CD)

Craig Erickson is a true groove master. He’s been true to the heavy, groovy blues rock since his debut “Roadhouse Stomp!” in 1992. It’s been a few years since his last physical album "Sky Train Galaxy", which was released in 2015. “Modern Blues” is really an example of what you read is what you get. Of course, “modern” can mean a lot of things. In this case it’s not about samples, machine generated grooves or auto tune abominations. It more the vibe. It’s blues and it’s rock and it doesn’t sound dated, which would qualify as “modern” in my book. The guitar is definitely in the forefront, and it’s Craig handling both guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals, only taking some help from drummer Jeff Sipe. I’ve always felt Craig has a pretty strong Robin Trower vibe to his vocals and playing, and it’s no different this time around. The vocals are pretty relaxed, yet rough, but no high pitch screaming, rather the missing link between James Dewar and Billy Gibbons. The guitar playing shines throughout the album and some songs that kinda stick out to me is the incredibly cool fuzzed out “Bring Love Back Again” with its funky vibe and brutal guitar licks and also the heavy, yet dynamic “Brokedown World” with its subtle but really beautiful Uni-Vibe Strat tone. I also can help to mention another song that sticks out a bit, which is “Wildfire”, which starts out a bit reminding of vintage southern rockers The Outlaws, but goes into a more funky direction. A really cool number with some intense and outstanding guitar solos with a cool fusion oriented vibe to them. Highly recommended!

Label: Fervor Records 

Country: USA

Year: 2023

Jimmy Ryan - Astral Café (CD)

 

Guitarist extraordinaire, Jimmy Ryan, is finally following up his excellent “21st Century Riffology” CD of 2017. Jimmy is an outstanding player, mixing his blues oriented with classic rock in the vein of Wishbone Ash, which was the first thing I came to think of when listening to opening track “Starlord”. Killer melodic, instrumental, melodic guitar rock. “Shatterbrain” goes into a melodic, almost slightly fusion-oriented mode, with some brutal fuzz+UniVibe soloing. The cover of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” is a groovy heavy riff rocker, quite different from any other version I’ve heard. Jimmy’s rough-edged vocals fit this track like a glove. “Earthrise” is a smooth instrumental melodic number that takes us on to “Skydance”, which continues the melodic instrumental path, but with some cool almost progressive passages which gives the song a nice touch. “Black Ice” is a quirky riff piece, still melodic, but adding another new flavor to the album. Jimmy rips it open with a nice wah solo. “I’m Ready” brings in the heavy artillery and this one also has some fierce vocals from Jimmy. A kick ass heavy rocker, indeed! “Dulcinea” again brings us back into melodic guitar territory, while “Beserker” sure does what it says. That track has a raw, almost King’s X:ish vibe, but Jimmy’s smooth lead guitar lays in top like a smooth blanket. “Plectrumelectrum” kicks it into riff gear again and it does have a certain Zeppelin vibe to it. A cool track, indeed, with some pretty wild guitar harmonies. The short, but effective “Dreadhulk” takes us back into the detuned regions again, but soon picks up the pace and delivers some really cool harmony guitars. Drummer Dan Van Schindel makes good use of his toms in this one, as well as in the energetic vocal “Celestial Voice”, which made me think of Asia meets Wishbone Ash, with a pretty intense proggy mid-section and more kick ass soling from Jimmy. The album closes with “Quiet Flight”, which again is a quite descriptive title for a song. A smooth melodic guitar solo opens this more than 8 minute long number, which also takes a short walk into fusion-land. In all a brilliant guitar album for fans of bands like vintage Wishbone Ash. 

Year: 2021

Label: Ryanetics

Country: USA

Link: www.ryanetics.com

Pontus Snibb’s Wreck Of Blues – Too Late To Die Young (CD)

First of all, I’m a huge fan of Pontus’ raspy blues infused vocals and his fiery guitar work, also heard in AC/CD style hard rockers Bonafide. Wreck of Blues is however a totally different creature. The band features Pontus on guitar and vocals, his father Håkan Nyberg on drums and bass player Kalle Johansson. The music is rootsy, energy loaded electric blues. Even though I love Bonafide, I must say Pontus’ voice really hits home 100 % in this musical environment. The album is a cool meeting between Stevie Ray Vaughn/Robin Trower style guitar based heavy blues and classic rhythm ‘n blues. This trio sure has the power of groove flowing through their veins. Just check out tracks like “You Had A Friend” and “Light Me Up” with Håkan shuffling away like steady old tractor, with Kalle providing the low frequency steering wheel and Pontus harvesting the sweet tonal fruits. I really love the earthy, analogue mix which sometimes, like in “Brothers And Friends” sounds like it was recorded live there and then. Having had the pleasure of seeing the band live, I can say this is not far away from what they do sound like on stage. I also have to say, with the blues sometimes having the problem of repeating itself over and over, Pontus has managed to put some nice twists to the old well-oiled blues machine. Truly a kick-ass album!

Janne Stark

Label: Off Yer Rocka

Year: 2018

Country: Sweden  

Mike Onesko - Re-covered (CDr pro)

Mike Onesko has released a buch of albums on his own, as well as with Blind Side Blues Band. There has been the occasional cover on his previous albums, but as the title may suggest, this one is all about that. The album starts off with two Robin Trower interpretations, the usual suspects I would say - ”Day of the Eagle” and ”Bridge of Sighs”. Mike doesn’t really stray away too far from the originals and even though I really like Mike as a guitarist, he unfortunately doesn't (and, well, not many) come close to Trower. The vocals are kick-ass, though. Steppenwolf’s ”Sookie Sookie” gets a solid makeover and he does a really fat and chunky updated version of Arthur Brown’s ”Fire”, where the vocals are instead a slightly weak link. I also like the chugging arrangement of The Beatles’ ”Elenor Rigby”. The cover of The Motels ”Only the Lonely”, to me, feels a little out of place with its semi-soft standard rock feel. Really good vocals by Angela Onesko, though. Odd choice of a cover methinks. Cream’s ”SWLABR” is more in line with the rest and is a great and solid offering. When doing a cover album I always try to avoid the obvious bar band cover songs recorded a zillion times. Well, Mike doing Hendrix ”Hey Joe” proves he doesn’t share that philosophy. A good effort, but I do wonder why? ”Wishing Well” is another standard, done true to the original. Led Zeppelin’s ”No Quarter” is not your average bar band cover, even though it has been quite frequently interpreted, and Mike does do a solid version of it, here with Jeff Martin handling the vocals, embracing his inner Plant. The album is a really good effort, no doubt, but I must admit I would have liked to see more unexpected covers, or at least some more daring arrangements. Maybe next time?

Janne Stark

Label: Jib Machine Records

Year: 2017

Country: USA

Blindstone - The Seventh Cycle of Eternity (CD)

Danish power trio Blindstone continue their relentless journey in the sign of the mighty riff on this their seventh musical journey. This time around the band has gone through a change in personnel, introducing drummer Sigurd Jønk Jensen, replacing Anders Hvidfeldt. Anders did an outstanding job, but it feels Sigurd is switching the Blindstone drum department up yet another notch. He actually gets to show his skills already in the thundering opening track Dead Man's Blues, a heavy blues rocker, true to the Blindstone trademark. Guitarist/singer Martin J Andersen lets his guitar speak loudly all over the track, riffing, soloing and filling every crack and crevice with a tasteful bit of wah-ornamented guitar magic. Rolling switches into low gear and offers some crude and fat bass riffing from Jesper Bunk. Man, this is one steamroller of a track! Rebel In Black offers some nice dynamics with a cool verse and slow pace riffing. The backbeat bluesy On My Way offers a change in pace and sound with some (I presume) neck pick-up Strat riffing. One thing I actually do feel has changed a bit, is I don't (so far) hear as much Frank Marino influences, apart from Martin's similar vocal range and style. Ok, Looking Back, a beautiful ballad, does have a touch of Marino mixed with Trower, which is top notch in my book. Martin also stays away from the wah in this one and the solos are just out of this world in tone, clarity, feel, presence and tastefulness. Frickin' outstanding! The oddly title By The Suns Of Warvan, You Shall Be Avenged is a cool heavy riff-oriented instrumental with a strong feel of early Satriani. Wish Satch, whom I'm truly a huge fan of, would record a song like this today. Multi-facetted, melodic and un-shredding, still with truly impressive guitar work. Thunder From The North continues with some heavy guitar chugging and a surprisingly hooky and melodic pre-chorus. A great track, indeed! A Love Manifesto continues in the vein of its predecessor, but still with a totally different approach. Heavy, break-filled verse leaving lots of space for highly personal Martin's low-key vocals that fit so well with this type of music. It also offers another dose of killer solos. Stonesnake opens with some busy drumming and continues in a up-tempo boogie:ish vein, suddenly switching down to half speed in the verse. Killer track! Once again the band moves into the grinding, steamroller heavy-as-lead territory with Once You See The Signs. A crusher! Another cool surprise now comes in the form of Hendrix penned Power of Soul, a heavy blues rocker that has been given the proper Blindstone treatment. All in all, yet another top notch release from the Danes. Seven albums and not a single let-down. Impressive!

Janne Stark

Label: Grooveyard

Year: 2016

Country: Denmark

CRAIG ERICKSON – Sky Train Galaxy (CD)

I discovered Craig Erickson already back in 1992 when I bought his album Roudhouse Stomp!. I loved his cool vocals and fierce guitar playing from day one, and it hasn’t changed. He’s one of those guys that never ceases to deliver high quality stuff. Well, opener The Comeback just proved he’s done it again. An awesome, stonking, punchy rocker with balls the size of a wrecking ball. But, what really blew my mind was his phenomenal cover of Deep Purple’s Getting Tighter/Ode To T (yes, T, not G), which is just plain classic. The times when I think a cover actually is better than the original is as rare as an ice cream man on Antarctica, but Craig actually does. It’s without doubt one of my favourite tracks of 2015! In Time (Never Enough) Craig delivers fill after fill and solo after solo with his highly recognizable slinky and bluesy style. Illusions of the World gives me vibes of another favourite artist of mine, namely Robin Trower. Craig has the same cool soulful style and same tasteful way to fit in cool guitar licks around the vocals with out one clashing with the other. Oustanding! I may be partial since Grooveyard is releasing some of my stuff as well, but I must say that this label really picks some outstanding artists and releases some top quality albums! Craig Erickson, Jay Jesse Johnson, Brett Ellis, Martin J Andersen, Johnny Hunkins etc etc. The list is as long as Billy Gibbons’ beard. This is no standard blues rock album. You’ll find a variety of styles and sounds hidden in the mix and it really makes for an album you come back to over and over and never get tired of.

Janne Stark

Country: USA

Year: 2015

Label: Grooveyard Records